Shop These Garden Essentials on Sale Before Fall

Sometime last week the season changed. The heat gave way to heavy rain, and although the temperature reached 80 degrees again a few days later, it was clear that summer was coming to an end. The air just smelled different and I could see the behavior of the local squirrels going into preparation mode.

I may feel sad about having to sort out the summer garden, but then I get distracted by preparing for fall, hoping for the seeds I’m planting now, and collecting and processing everything that comes out of the beds. I write down in detail what worked and what didn’t; sometimes I draw reminders for next year in my garden journal.

Then I remember the end of the summer sales, and the dopamine that a person only gets from buying plants comes into play.

Rescue all the sad plants from the nursery.

I’ve written before about the beauty of a sad plant shelf at your local nursery or store, and now is the perfect choice. Nurseries need to consolidate as they transition to winter. The key is to look for these suggestions and ignore how sad the plants look. If they’re not dead, they’ll recover by next year, and when you throw them in the ground now, what they look like won’t matter much since they’ll fall off soon anyway.

Don’t be afraid to ask for a big discount if you sweep up multiple plants—many of these plants end up in the compost bin. This includes your grocer’s children’s department, chain stores, and even Home Depot and Lowe’s. The manager has greater freedom of action in reducing product prices.

Look for end-of-season sales.

All major online garden retailers have end-of-season sales on seeds and equipment . Now is a great time to pick up your garden infrastructure , such as trellises, planting tools, and most important to our new climate: season-extending equipment . Agribond, which insulates your low tunnels, or shade cloth, or base materials for low tunnels. Grab seed starting materials if they go on sale.

Your nursery is also likely doing house cleaning, which means it’s a great time to get great deals on plant pots, gardening books and fertilizers. Call and ask.

Replenish your seed supply

In just a few months, next year’s seed catalogs will be released and there will be the same rush that has happened every year since 2020. Prepare by clearing out your inventory now that the seeds are on sale.

First, don’t overlook grocery stores or big box seed stands. These seeds need to be sold, and now they are at a big discount. While they don’t offer the widest variety, they are ideal for some staples: carrots, onions, radishes, sunflowers and a range of flowers such as nasturtiums, marigolds, pansies and petunias. All of the above will be good for next year’s harvest (onion seeds such as onions, which are often considered good only for a year, often last longer and germinate so quickly that they are worth checking).

Now look through the stack of empty seed packets you’re holding in your hands and check out the seed sales on your favorite seed sites like Johnny’s .

Check your area’s apps

When everyone starts decluttering for fall, they often get rid of a lot of items that are perfectly usable but difficult to store, such as tomato cages, flower pots, hoses, trellises and all sorts of garden ephemera, not to mention… to plants. This week I saw people offering all sorts of perennials for giveaway, sharing what they had in the garden. Free is always better.